Human operant performance: Sensitivity and pseudosensitivity to contingencies

Undergraduates' button presses occasionally produced points exchangeable for money. Left and right buttons were initially correlated with multiple random-ratio (RR) and random-interval (RI) components, respectively. During interruptions of the multiple schedule, students filled out sentence-completion guess sheets describing the schedules, and points were contingent upon the accuracy of guesses. To test for sensitivity to schedule contingencies, schedule components were repeatedly reversed between the two buttons. Pressing rates were consistently higher in ratio than in interval components even when feedback for guesses was discontinued, demonstrating sensitivity to the difference between ratio and interval contingencies. The question was whether this sensitivity was based directly on the contingencies or whether it was rule-governed. For two students, when multiple RR RI schedules were changed to multiple RI RI schedules, rates became low in both components of the multiple RI RI schedule; however, subsequent prevention of point deliveries for the first few responses in any component produced high rates in that component. For a third student, response rates became higher in the RI component that provided the lower rate of reinforcement. In each case, performance was inconsistent with typical effects of the respective schedules with nonhuman organisms; it was therefore plausible to conclude that the apparently contingency-governed performances were instead rule-governed.     

Interactive effects of behavior and reproductive hormones on sex differences in risk for coronary heart disease

It is well known that women in the United States, as in most industrialized countries in the world, are protected from coronary heart disease (CHD), relative to men. It is thought that this protection is by and large due to the effects of female reproductive hormones (i.e., estrogens) on lipid and lipoprotein metabolism and blood pressure, although women's relatively low rates of cigarette smoking are also thought to play a role. However, epidemiological studies that statistically adjust for sex differences in lipids, blood pressure, and smoking status cannot explain sex differences in CHD morbidity and mortality. Also, inconsistent with a simple main-effect model of reproductive hormones are data showing elevated risk of myocardial infarction and stroke among women who use oral contraceptives. Men who are prescribed estrogens have elevated risk of CHD, and case-control studies show that male CHD patients have elevated estradiol, compared to controls. This article suggests that simple main-effect models of female protection from CHD are inadequate. It argues that reproductive hormones are important determinants of protection from CHD, in interaction with behavioral characteristics. It also demonstrates that reproductive hormones can influence behavioral characteristics and that behavioral characteristics can influence the effects of reproductive hormones on CHD risk factors.     

Using the internet to extend training in team problem solving

A hybrid training approach, composed of both computer-mediated communication on the Internet and face-to-face meetings, was implemented. The goals were to examine whether such an approach (1) could be used to extend traditional, short-term training, and (2) would be perceived as useful by the trainees. A central element of the approach was thelinchpin expert, a trainer who served as a communication bridge on the Internet between a team of trainers and a team of trainees. A coding system was developed to analyze the content of the Internet messages. Logistic regression analysis revealed that two types of content were related to the trainees’ perceptions that the messages enhanced their expertise in team problem solving: (1) outcome feedback given to a trainee about a specific activity, and (2) the sharing of conceptual information. The trainees perceived face-to-face and computer-mediated communications with the linchpin expert as being important to their development of expertise.     

Book reviews

Islam: a challenge for Christianity (Concilium 1994/3). Hans Kung & Jurgen Moltmann (Eds), 1994. London, Concilium; Maryknoll, SCM Press; London, Orbis Books. 163 pp., pb. £8.95, ISBN 0–334–030269.

Cultures in Conflict: Christians, Muslims and Jews in the age of discovery. Bernard Lewis, 1995. New York, Oxford University Press. 101 pp., hb., $16.95, ISBN 0–19–509026–8.

Beyond Faith and Infidelity: the Sufi poetry and teachings of Mahmud Shabistari. L. Lewisohn, 1995. Richmond, Surrey, Curzon Press. 344 pp. pb. £14.99, 0–7007–0343–8.

The Prophet's Pulpit: Islamic preaching in contemporary Egypt. [Comparative Studies on Muslim Societies, 20]. Patrick Gaffney, 1994. Berkeley and Los Angeles, University of California Press. 367 pp., hb. £40.00, ISBN 0–520–08471–3, pb. £15.95, ISBN 0–520–08472–1.

Sufi and Scholar on the Desert Edge: Muhammad b. CA1i al‐Sanūsi and his Brotherhood. K. S. Vikor, 1995. London, Hurst & Co. 310 pp. hb. £37.50, ISBN 1 85065 218 X.

Children of Islam. Marie Parker‐Jenkins, 1995. Stoke‐on‐Trent, Trentham Books Ltd. 162 pp., £12.95, ISBN 1–85856 034 9.     

Book Reviews

C larke , J.J. Jung and Eastern Thought: A Dialogue with the Orient
J acoby , M ario . Shame and the Origins of Self-Esteem: AJungian Approach
L ammers , A nn C onrad . In Cod's Shadow: The Collaboration of Victor White and C.G. Jung     

Book Reviews

J ung , C. G. The Psychology of Kundalini Yoga: Notes of the Seminar Given in 1932
P apadopoulos , R enos K. (ed.). Carl Gustav Jung: Critical Assessments
S poto , A ngelo . Jung's Typology in Perspective
S tein M urray (ed.). The Interactive Field In Analysis: Volume One
S tevens , A nthony . The Two-Million-Year Old Self
B ollas , C hristopher & S undelson , D avid . The New Informants, The Betrayal of Confidentiality in Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy
S hepherd , R., J ohns , J. & R obinson H. R. (eds). D. W. Winnicott Thinking About Children
C lay , J ohn . R. D. Laing: A Divided Self
C oltart , N ina . The Baby and the Bathwater     

Ipsative and Normative Scales in Adjectival Measurement of Personality: Problems of Bias and Discrepancy

887 respondents completed ipsative and normative versions of the PAL-TOPAS personality questionnaire. Data were analysed to test for (1) systematic bias in scores associated with the two response formats and (2) predictors of the magnitude of the discrepancy in the individual's ipsative and normative scores. Discrepancy was assessed for both item responses and scale scores. Sources of biases investigated included ipsative scaling artifact, extremeness of scores on the normative scales and response variability. Results showed that systematic bias in scale scores and magnitude of discrepancy were predicted by different factors. One source of systematic bias was associated with ipsative scaling artifact: the ipsative scales measure both the scale itself and rejection of other alternatives. A second source of systematic bias was acquiescence in response to normative items. A confirmatory factor analysis showed that a good but imperfect fit to the data may be obtained by constructing a structural model of the inter-relationship between normative and ipsative scores which accommodates both sources of bias. The strongest influence on discrepancy in scale scores was extremeness of normative scoring, associated with a bias towards either general acceptance or rejection of trait adjectives. It is concluded that both normative and ipsative response formats have limitations, and it may often be desirable to assess both.     

Two Theories of Supposition?

In a recent paper Paul Vincent Spade suggests that, although the medieval doctrine of the modes of personal supposition originally had something to do with the rest of the theory of supposition, it became, by the 14th century, an unrelated theory with no question to answer. By contrast, I argue that the theory of the modes of personal supposition was meant to provide a way of making understandable the idea that a general term in a categorical proposition can be used to refer to the individual things that fall under it. Once that idea had been made acceptable, truth conditons for the various forms of categorical proposition could be given without any specific appeal to the ideas of descent and ascent in terms of which the modes had been defined.     

Developing insight through supervision: relating, then defining

By the use of tape recordings, I attempt to understand the main ways in which a supervisor helps the supervisees to gain insights into their work with their patients. Through this research I became aware that insights come into being by way of a process involving unconscious identity and differentiation. I have use supervisory examples to illustrate the ways in which the supervisor interacts with the supervisee.